Bastards

Bastards (, Svolochi) is a 2006 Russian coming-of-age war film. Synopsis In the Soviet Union, 1943, a group of teenage convicts are secretly trained for a guerrilla mission to stop the actions of a German army group called "Edelweiss". Plot summary The story is set in the Soviet Union during the Second World War in the year 1943. Colonel Vishnevetskiy is released from prison to organize a school of military training for saboteurs. Students,14–15 years old criminals, come from prisons and correction colonies. After harsh training they are sent to destroy a German oil depot deep in the Carpathian mountains. Controversy The film's release caused massive controversy in Russia, where some deemed it "state-supported anti-Soviet propaganda". The plot for the film, written by Kunin, involved a story of teenagers with a criminal background who were caught by the NKVD during the Great Patriotic war, then trained as saboteurs in special schools and thrown into the German countryside to face a certain death.